Circus dancer Babette learns from Zaidee, her fortune-teller mother, that her father is the respected businessman Ezra Butterworth, who had deserted Zaidee years before and then remarried. After Zaidee dies, Babette goes to live with Ezra, but he is so fearful that his second wife, as well as the townspeople, will learn of his less-than-upright past that he takes her in as his ward and forbids her to mention their real relationship. Still, gossip begins, and Ezra is forced to tell the whole story to his wife, who forgives him. Disgusted by the intolerant townspeople, Babette returns to the circus, as well as to her sweetheart Petey. In the end, Ezra publicly acknowledges her as his daughter and presents Babette and Petey with a farm as a wedding present.